Air diffuser



United States Patent AIR DIFFUSER Cortland N. ODay, Port Washington, and George J. Sweeney, Manhasset, N.Y., assignors to Air Devices, Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed July 8, 1958, Ser. No. 747,203

9 Claims. (Cl. 98-40) placed adjacent the junction of a wall or ceiling or along the base or side of a door or window opening to give :controlled air distribution and which may be readily manufactured and assembled.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present inven- 'tion.

In accomplishing the above objects it has been found most satisfactory to provide an elongated partition member having a plurality of narrow channel-like passages which are provided with a series of vanes or fins extending oppositely from one another to direct the flow of air so that it will flow obliquely in opposite directions as it flows through the parallel passageways into a room or enclosure to give a maximum distribution of the desired conditioning or ventilating air.

An important feature of the present invention resides in the construction of the bafiles or vanes which are stamped out of a strip of metal and extend transversely obliquely in respect to the longitudinal axis of the strip of metal with the openings formed by the stamped out portions being closed either by the inturned edges of the strip of metal, which is preferred, or by a separate sheet of metal which is held against the base of the stamp-out strip by edge envelopes.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated'in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Figure l is a front elevational view of an elongated air distributing outlet according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a top plan view showing the various elevations and channels constructions of the device of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a transverse, vertical sectional view taken upon the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Figure 4 is a perspective construction of one of the vane or baflie members; and

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Figure 5 is a perspective view of an alternative baflle construction.

Referring to Figs. 1-3, there is an upper plate A, a lower plate B and a series of channels C, D, E and F which communicate with the throat section G leading to an interior conduit system. The frames A and B are provided with the sealing members H and J consisting of elongated rubber pads.

The basic structure may consist of a plurality of oblique vanes or fins K struck up from a sheet of metal L and held in position by means of a backing strip M.

In an alternative construction the main strip of metal N having the struck-up oblique vanes P may be folded reversely to form its own backing strip Q.

Referring to Figs. 1-3, the vanes 10 in the channel C extend obliquely outwardly to the left. The vanes 11 in channel D extend obliquely outwardly to the right. The vanes 12 in channel E extend obliquely outwardly to the left while the vanes 13 in channel F extend obliquely outwardly to the right. These arrangements, of course, could be varied with the vanes all extending outwardly to the right or all outwardly to the left or alternating in various arrangements of two at a time or in arrangements of two in one direction, one in another direction, two in the next direction, etc. These vanes are constructed as indicated in Figs. 4 and 5.

In Figure 5, the vanes are struck up from a sheet of metal or strip of metal L leaving the openings 20. To block oil these openings a backing strip M is employed, the base 21 of which will cover the openings 20- as shown in Fig. 4. Then the edges are folded over as indicated at 22 to engage the edges 23 ,of the strip L. This assembly then may be mounted into the arrangement of Figs. 1-3.

In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4, the strip N has the folded in portions Q which abut at 24 and thus seal the openings 25 which are left when the oblique vanes P are struck upwardly.

Although the arrangement of Fig. 4 or the arrangement of Fig. 5 may be utilized in the assembly of Figs. 1-3, as shown, Figs. 2 and 3, the top frame A and the bottom frame B have the inturned outer flanges 35 and 36 which engage the upper and lower edges 37 and 38 of the pads J and they have the inturned inside flanges 39 and 41) between which is clamped the units making up the channels, C, D, E and F by means of the throughbolts 41 and the nuts 42.

The first unit in the assemblage of Fig. 3 is the backi g plate 43 (assembled in the manner indicated in Fig. 5) with the vanes 10. The edges of the vanes 10 contact the next backing plate 44 which carries the vanes 11.

The intermediate separator plate 45 will separate the upper two channels C and D from the lower two channels E and F. Below the plate 45 the vanes 12 will be carried by the backing plate 46. The backing plates 43, 44, 45 and 46 correspond to the elements 20 of Fig. 5 or Q of Fig. 4.

In the final channel F the backing plate 47 will carry the vanes 13 which rest upon the flange 40 of the frame B. By spacing the flanges 39 and 46 further apart or closer together a number of' channels C, D, E and F many be varied with the vanes 10, 11, 12 and 13 controlling the spacing betweenthe various channels and the width of the channels. The frames A and B, by means of the screws 55 and 56 will carry the upper and lower plates 57 and 58 of the conducting section G which are connected by the sideplates 59 to form an inlet throat. The walls 57 and j58 together with the connecting wall 59 form the 'inlet throat connection. These sections 57 and 58 have the forward flanges 60 and 61 which are clamped against the gaskets H and I by means of the screws 55 and 56.

The air in its outward flow, as indicated by the arrows 62, will be divided in vanes by the channels C, D, E and F and the flow through these vanes will then be alternately directed to the right and to the left, depending upon the obliquity of the vanes 10, 11, 12 and 13. The assembly will be readily made either with the structure shown in Fig. 4 or the structure shown in Fig. 5 by placing the units of Figs. 4 and 5 between the flanges 39 and 40 and inserting the through bolts 41 and attaching the gaskets H and J by the flanges 60 and 61 and the screws 55 and 56 and the conduit structure G then being placed in position.

While there has been herein described a preferred form of the invention, it should be understood that the same may be altered in details and in relative arrangement of parts Within the scope of the appended claims.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed:

What is claimed is:

1. An elongated air distributing device comprising elongated upper and lower frames having inturned flanges, and a plurality of elongated air directing vane members on elongated metal strips, each of said vane members being an oblique portion upstruck from said elongated metal strips, said vane members being positioned between said upper and lower frames to form a plurality of laterally extending superimposed narrow air channe s, said strips With vane members being assembled in pile and bolted together between said inturned flanges, and means to cover the openings formed by said upstruck portions.

2. An elongated air distributing device comprising elongated upper and lower frames having inturned flanges, and a plurality of elongated air directing vane members on elongated metal strips, each of said vane members being an oblique portion upstruck from said elongated metal strips, said vane members being positioned between said upper and lower frames to form a plurality of laterally extending superimposed narrow air channels, said strips with vane members being assembled in a pile and bolted together between said inturned flanges, and means to cover the openings formed by said upstruck portions, said means consisting of the reversely bent abutting edges of said metal strips.

3. An elongated air distributing device comprising elongated upper and lower frames having inturned flanges and a plurality of elongated air directing vane members on elongated metal strips, each of said vane members being an oblique portion upstruck from said elongated metal strips, said vane members being positioned between said upper and lower frames to form a plurality of laterally extending superimposed narrow air channels, said strips with vane members being assembled in a pile and bolted together, and means to cover the openings formed by said upstruck members, said means consisting of a separate metal strip with inturned edges to engage each of said first mentioned metal strips.

4. An elongated air distributing device comprising elongated upper and lower frames having inturned flanges and a plurality of elongated air directing vane members on elongated metal strips, each of said vane members being an oblique portion upstruck from said elongated metal strips, said vane members being positioned between said upper and lower frames to form a plurality of laterally extending superimposed narrow air channels, said strips with vane members being assembled in a pile and bolted together between said inturned flanges, and means to cover the openings formed by said upstruck portions, said oblique portions controlling the spacing between said strips and said oblique portions being inclined in opposite directions to cause the air to flow oppositely from each of said strips.

5. An elongated air diffuser having a plurality of stacked oblique vane units, each comprising an elongated rectangular metal strip with obliquely perpendicularly extending rectangular portions die cut from and extending transversely upwardly from the strip leaving openings in the strip, and closure means mounted on the other side of the strip from the portions to close off said openings.

6. The diffuser of claim 5, said closure means being formed by the inturned and reversely bent longitudinal edge portions of the strip, the inturned edges abutting each other and positioned against the strip on the opposite side from said portions.

7. The diffuser of claim 5, said closure consisting of an additional metal strip with inturned edges to engage and slide upon the edges of the strip and telescope upon said strip.

8. An elongated diffuser composed of a stack of elongated rectangular metal strips having die cut and turned up therefrom obliquely disposed short rectangular portions acting as spacers and bolts tying said strips together with the portions acting as spacers to space the strips together, and closure means extending under and along said metal strips on the opposite side of said metal strips and closing the openings left by die cutting said portions from said strips.

9. An elongated diffuser composed of a stack of elongated rectangular metal strips having die cut and turned up therefrom obliquely disposed short rectangular portions acting as spacers and means tying said strips together with the oblique portions acting as spacers to space the strips together and cover means to cover the openings left by the die cutting and turning upwardly of the obliquely disposed short rectangular portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,195,411 Germonprez Apr. 2, 1940 2,211,568 Henney Aug. 13, 1940 2,240,617 Harrigan May 6, 1941 

